DanH but you explained yourself that as Bayless was tendered a QO his cap hit went from 7.6M to 4M. Thats the only way they could have signed Fields to an offer, by having enough free capspace

Quote? Pretty sure I said the opposite. QO's NEVER reduce the cap hit.

They haven't signed him to anything yet - that's what July 11th is for. On that day, they could agree to a contract with Bayless starting at roughly his QO amount - thus freeing up the same amount of cap space. The one benefit of the moratorium period is that GM's have a few days to get their ducks in a row and make all those deals they agree to work financially.